What changed

MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION

P9_TA(2024)0373

on Parliament’s estimatesEstimates of revenue and expenditure for the financial year 2025 – Section I – European Parliament

(2023/2221(BUI))

Committee on Budgets

PE759.633

European Parliament resolution of 25 April 2024 on Parliament’s estimates of revenue and expenditure for the financial year 2025 (2023/2221(BUI))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 16 December 2020 between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission on budgetary discipline, on cooperation in budgetary matters and on sound financial management, as well as on new own resources, including a roadmap towards the introduction of new own resources,

– having regard to its interim report of 3 October 2023 on the proposal for a mid-term revision of the multiannual financial framework 2021-2027,

– having regard to its resolution of 15 December 2022 on upscaling the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework: a resilient EU budget fit for new challenges,

D. whereas 2025 will be the first full year after the elections and there will therefore be a return to the normal pace of core political and support activities;

E. whereas the Parliament adoptedfinalised its deep reform process started last year to, on one hand review its internal working methods making parliamentary work more efficient, and on the other hand to strengthen its institutional role leading to a better functioning Parliament as co-legislator, as arm of the budgetary authority, as discharge authority and increasing its capacity to exercise democratic oversight;

General framework

17. Welcomes the continuous efforts and measures put in place by the Parliament in order to reduce its environmental footprint; reiterates its full support for Parliament’s environmental management system (EMAS) targets for 2024; expects Parliament to achieve all the EMAS key performance indicator targets by the end of 2024 and proceed to adoption of new ambitious targets for the coming years; notes in particular a number of achievements in this regard, including a 44 % reduction in carbon emissions since 2006, a 66 % reduction in paper use compared to 2014, the high rates of staff walking or cycling to work, significant decreases in the use of plastic, and the successful roll-out of renewable energy infrastructure, which saw 458 MWh of solar energy generated by the Parliament in 2023;

18. Takes note of the increases of the carbon credit prices; recalls that energy efficiency investments are a good method of achieving value for money; welcomes and encourages the investments in renewable energy and for the phasing-out of fossil fuels in particular given the energy crisis and geopolitical context and for it to be reflected in the next multi-annual building strategy; notes that Parliament has installed and is continuing to install photovoltaic (PV) solar panels to further increase the share of renewable energy produced on-site to reach the target of 25 %; recalls that nearly two-thirds of Parliament's carbon footprint originates from the transportation of people; welcomes Parliament's efforts to reduce CO2 emissions through chartered trains and calls for upscaling the availabilities to shift travel between the three places of work to train;

Other issues

19. Recalls the ongoing struggle in which the European Union is involved to safeguard European values and uphold the integrity of our democratic processes; welcomes the actions undertaken by the Parliament in the pursuit of these objectives, fighting against disinformation and information manipulation; calls on DG COMM and EPLOsEuropean Parliament Liaison Offices (EPLOs) to keep developing and implementing effective strategies to counter disinformation and information manipulation; highlights that one of the most powerful weapons against disinformation is positive, fact-based communication regarding the Parliament’s activities;

20. Recalls that the Parliament strongly supports multilingualism and promotes the rights of the national, regional and linguistic minorities; considers that the Parliament can actively contribute to the fight against disinformation by deepening its communication also in linguistic minorities and communities languages where appropriate; requires the Bureau to widen the extent of Parliament’s production and dissemination of communication materials that are in line with the needs of national, regional and linguistic minorities in Member States for example in the EPLOs and Europa Experience Centres as a way to counter any attempt to rely on linguistic differences to hinder cohesion; recalls in that sense the efforts undertaken by EPLOs in Baltic countries to provide information to citizens in Ukrainian and Russian since the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, with a particular focus on countering Russian disinformation and propaganda and encourages to continue supporting and promoting such activities in Ukrainian and Russian; underlines the importance of EPLO's active participation in the implementation of the Parliament's work on citizenship education through multiple programmes involving local communities, schools and universities;

22. Supports the announcement made by the Secretary-General in the Committee on Budgets to reduce administrative burden and bureaucracy for Members and their offices while accelerating the digitalisation of processes within the administration; stresses that investments in digitalisation are generating a return on investment in the midterm and should not be delayed for short-term cost savings;

24. Highlights that ensuring a fair geographical balance is an important part of creating a truly European public service; remarks thatthat, over the years, Parliament has taken a number of measures in that respect; notes that there is still room for improvement; notes that the Bureau has created the legal framework for the organisation of nationality specific competitions and decided to organise the first of such competitions; highlights that competitions should always be based on merit;

26. Reiterates its request, adopted at Plenary level at several occasions, to the Bureau to start the work on revision of the Rules of Procedure enabling Members to exercise their right to vote remotely, during benefiting from maternity or paternity leave, during a long-term illness or in cases of force majeure, taking advantage of the lessons learnt during the pandemic on the technical aspects of this voting method;

27. Reiterates its call to the Bureau to guarantee that all restaurants within Parliament uphold their standards of quality, efficiency and affordability, and to re-introduce access control at the entrances to the self-service restaurant during peak time; welcomes the implementation of access controls at the entrance of the WEISS self-service in Strasbourg during part-sessions;

28. Calls for a genuine commitment to achieving the principle of multilingualism;

29. Reiterates its call on the Conference of Presidents and the Bureau to revise the implementing provisions governing the work of delegations and missions outside the Union; underlines that such a revision should consider the possibility for APAs, subject to certain conditions, to accompany Members on official Parliament delegations and missions; highlights that this change would not result in any change to the envelope and would be budget neutral;